> 2TB limit + GPT Partition

I'm going crazy here, seems like 4x750GB drives in RAID5 come darn close to the limit, and I'm not certain if I have ran into a problem. Can someone familiar with the exact limits by bytes maybe help me out here? Not just the generic "2TB" limit, but like X,XXX,XXX MB etc...above/below means I am screwed or okay?

Here are some screenshots to show you what I'm looking at. I ask this because I'm in the process of migrating a 5th drive, and the online console has a single line that worries me.

This leads me to believe I should be fine as diskpart reports a GPT table like it should.


This is where it gets a little fuzzy, the following 2 screenshots hover right around the limit and I'm unsure if it is because I hit the limit and lost a tiny bit of storage space or it went over the limit like it should.



This is 3ware's console, reporting 2.05TB only. The thing is, it might not update the total size until the migration to 5 drives has finished. I built the array initially with 3 drives and migrated to 4 and just can't remember what this reported during that process unfortunately.


Hopefully this all makes sense and my question can be answered. The raid card supports auto-carving but I didn't want to have to do that, and I'm not sure if I can do that once the array has already been built anyway.

Using Vista Ultimate x64. Thanks for the help.

A GPT partition, which is clearly defined, allows you to bypass the 2 TB "limitation" of the OS. It appears you have set it up correctly, and the next limitation is 18 EB. 2 TB = 2048G, I believe it's being reported properly by the OS and the controller. Some RAID controllers are unable to see past the 2 TB "MBR" limitation, even if you have available HDDs.

Chawks already answered correctly so...

my two cents: Im jealous.

chawks2 said:

A GPT partition, which is clearly defined, allows you to bypass the 2 TB "limitation" of the OS. It appears you have set it up correctly, and the next limitation is 18 EB. 2 TB = 2048G, I believe it's being reported properly by the OS and the controller. Some RAID controllers are unable to see past the 2 TB "MBR" limitation, even if you have available HDDs.

Click to expand...

That's good news. It was mostly the console that worried me as I was unsure if they meant 2.05 "real" TB or 2050 GB which could easily be a rounding of 2048 GB.

Just wish I remember what it said when I migrated from 3->4, whether it was new or old volume size.

mepis said:

Chawks already answered correctly so...

my two cents: Im jealous.

Click to expand...

Thank you sir. As I alluded to, I didn't get it all in 1 go because it was pretty darn expensive